hiraeth
by Syrasha
Summary: hiraeth (welsh, noun) - a homesickness for a home you cannot return to, or that never was: alternatively, a mix of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness, and an earnest desire. Hancock and Nora, learning to define each other in snippets and pieces.
1. Chapter 1

Nora would be lying if she said she was adjusting well to life in the Commonwealth. There had been a few moments, briefly, when Nora had thought everything would come out okay, just as she emerged from the Vault. It seemed silly, but coming up out of the ground and seeing the sun still shining had given her hope, however shortly. Then, when the light quit blinding her eyes and she managed to move her hand away from her face, she saw the wasteland.

Minutes previously, to Nora, Sanctuary had been lush and white-picket fenced, the domestic dream Nate had always wanted for them and that Nora had compromised on when Shaun had been conceived. She had finally made the transition from lawyer to housewife, and finally started to even feel _satisfied_ with the new hand she'd been dealt, and it had been taken from her again.

Nora supposed they really hadn't been kidding about how many times the average person would change careers. Lawyer. Housewife. Survivor. Every morning she woke up and shook off Housewife to put on Survivor again, and every night Survivor fell away and was replaced with Housewife once more, doing everything in her power to make sure her new comrades in Sanctuary were taken care of, Codsworth there to help as he always had been and a few other allies that she'd picked up along the way.

Housewife did more crying than Survivor, so Housewife had to be put on hold while Nora and a companion were trekking through the Commonwealth, but Housewife peeked through the curtains whenever she saw a friend go down, or saw a child begging for scraps.

She wasn't adjusting well, but she was surviving, and that was more than anyone else she had known before the war except Shaun, so it felt distasteful to complain. She felt similarly when she and Piper walked into Goodneighbor and Nora was already a little worse for wear. Piper had wrapped Nora's arm around her shoulders and had almost dragged her singlehandedly into town. Nora almost wanted to kiss the journalist when she wasn't berating herself for stupidly managing to step on a bottlecap mine.

Then that asshole had told her she needed "insurance," and if only for the sake of her relationship with Piper, Nora was glad her leg felt completely mangled, because it would have taken every ounce of self-control not to beat him to within an inch of his life.

"Look, pal," Nora spat, "I may not look like much now, but I promise you, if either of us needs insurance, it's definitely not me."

One look at Nora's leg and it was clear that the man wasn't convinced, and even Piper's valiant attempts to convince him otherwise were unsuccessful. Part of her wondered if this endeavor would have been more successful if she had brought Preston with her in place of Piper, but she didn't get to follow that train of thought for very long before another voice entered the fray.

"Look, Finn, I appreciate your entrepreneurial spirit," said the gravelly voice, "but there ain't no reason to be taking advantage of people who clearly are new to town."

Nora had to be honest; she sort of stopped listening once she saw who the voice was coming from. He sounded like Nora's grandfather that had never laid off the cigarettes despite what everyone told him, but that was really the only human thing about the speaker other than the fact that he walked on two legs. Of course, all that meant that when the – _thing –_ man killed the extortionist, she had no context clues whatsoever.

Piper brought her back to earth. "Mayor Hancock. A pleasure." Piper's mouth twisted distastefully. "See you still aren't above killing civilians."

"Ms. Wright, like you said yourself, I'm the mayor. Sometimes folks, those of less caliber than yourself, need reminded of that." Hancock looked Nora up and down, and Nora felt a chill run down her spine. "Doc can patch you up if your friend needs it, and she looks like she does. Say I sent you. Consider it a favor to earn the goodwill of the press."

"Good journalists don't accept bribes, Hancock," Piper's mouth was still set in a line.

"Fine, then let her bleed out. See if I care. Something tells me you weren't lying when you told him you didn't have the caps to pay for insurance, and if you don't have caps for him, you don't have caps for the doc."

"Thanks," Nora blurted out, speaking for the first time with sudden urgency as blood started seeping through the makeshift bandages she and Piper had rigged up not too many hours before. "Let's go, Piper, before you've gotta put me back underground."

"Whatever you say, Blue." Piper dragged her the last little way to the doctor, and when the doctor laid her down and said something about injecting her, Nora was already so woozy from blood loss that she acquiesced without a thought. After that, everything was black.

Nora drifted in and out of the darkness, snippets of her old life and her new weaving in and connecting with each other, and she sees Nate and Piper and Shaun and Nick and Preston and Codsworth and then that weird sort-of-man who looked a lot like the feral ghouls that she and Piper had killed for miles just to get to Goodneighbor.

The sound was hazy, sort of like if she had turned on the radio and it hadn't been quite tuned properly.

" _I don't know what happened, Hancock. I stuck her with some Med-X to relieve the pain, and it wasn't thirty seconds before her pulse got so faint I could barely feel it."_

" _How much did you give her?"_ That sounded like Nick.

" _Standard dose -"_

" _Standard dose?! I told you not to do anything without checking with me first."_

" _No offense, Nicky, but you're a synth, so don't let it hurt your feelings that you weren't the first person she thought of to contact when something went wrong with our little Vault dweller."_

Nick exhaled through his nose. _"No offense,_ _ **Johnny**_ _,"_ Nick sounded like he was mocking Hancock, " _but Piper and I are the only ones who know that Nora's been out for a couple of centuries and probably is a little more sensitive to chems than your average person."_

" _Piper should have said - "_ There was the doctor again, cut off by Piper's voice.

" _Piper_ _ **did**_ _say. You didn't listen because, I quote, 'What does a little muckraker from Diamond City know?'"_

The voices became more and more understandable until Nora finally blinked her eyes open, slowly at first before shooting fully awake at the sudden pain that made her see stars.

"Mother of _shit,_ " Nora swore, panting, sitting up in bed only to find herself with Piper and Nick hovering over the bed. "Why does everyone have to talk so loud?"

"Sorry, Blue. Nat always says the same," Piper said, not sounding sorry at all, instead with a wide grin on her face. "Just glad to have you back. Had ole Nicky worried."

"Your leg is functional, but it's still going to be sore. The pain doesn't mean anything too bad."

"What happened?" Nora asked, and Piper and Nick looked at one another. Piper let out a sigh and opened her mouth as if to speak, but was beaten to the punch.

"You blacked out off a teaspoon of chems that wouldn't have made anybody else blink. Guess it's true what they say about age and constitution," Hancock said with a smirk.

Nora was still limping when they left, but she couldn't handle being out of commission much longer than she already had been, so she, Nick, and Piper went to the Memory Den because the gods had apparently not put her in enough pain for the last few days. Coming out of the experience, Nora briefly thanked her stars that she had had the foresight not to bring Dogmeat with, because the kind of groaning she was doing would have put the dog incredibly on edge.

Survivor drank a lot more than Housewife ever had (perhaps , so it was with her limp that she worked her way down to the Third Rail, grimacing at every step but too nervous to take painkillers following her "episode" with the doctor.

"Something strong," she said, sitting down at the bar and addressing the barkeep, a robot with a Union Jack sticker slapped on and an accent to match.

"Strong like tequila or strong like turpentine, sister?" There was the raspy voice again, closer than Nora was really comfortable with, and when she looked to her left, there Hancock was, settling into the seat beside her.

"Strong like something to make me forget that my leg's on fire and my brain feels like it was torn apart and taped back together," Nora answered not a little dryly.

"Put it on my tab, Charlie," Hancock said to the bartender, and Nora raised an eyebrow.

"Why?" Nora asked suspiciously.

"Can't have people saying Goodneighbor isn't hospitable to its guests," he said, and downed a glass that Charlie put in front of him as Nora sipped hers slowly. "So what's the story? You look good for your age, sister. Usually it's only us ghouls that last that long."

"Pre-war, we had all kinds of anti-aging cream. All us vaulties look like this if we can stay alive," she said, and it was sarcastic, but Nora had dropped Survivor for Lawyer, walls and all. The ghoul was nice enough to talk to and she wouldn't complain about his company, though she was suspicious about his motives, and she still couldn't look at him for too long for fear of staring.

Hancock, for his part, had made his way down to the Third Rail to understand what kind of person in this world still wore a wedding ring. This woman already seemed to have Nick and that reporter from Diamond City wrapped around her finger, both relatively powerful allies, with all things considered, but the wedding ring was an archaic tradition, a reminder of a way of life that no longer existed. It made no sense, unless Piper and Nick had been telling the truth about her being a pre-war antique, and that made no sense either.

Three drinks in and Hancock was almost feeling it. Nora certainly was.

"So, what even is a ghoul? They certainly weren't down in my vault," Nora said, and her words slurred, staring into her drink before looking him in the eye and squinting.

"You must be fresh outta the ground." Hancock dodged the question, though he wasn't sure why. She seemed as though she didn't want to look at him for too long at a time, which was common enough, but from her it seemed almost innocent rather than disgusted

Nora waved him off with a flippant hand gesture. "Don't misdirect, Hancock. I was a lawyer. I know deflection when I see it."

Hancock raised what would have been an eyebrow as a reflex. "A lawyer?"

"Ah!" Nora slammed down her drink and waggled a finger at him. "No questions. I'm the one doing the examining, here."

"The examining?" Hancock chuckled. "I had no idea we already knew each other that well." Hancock paused, waiting for her to continue the banter, but instead she rested her elbow on the bar and her face on her hand. Her face was rounder than many in Goodneighbor, healthy instead of underfed, her eyes were bright, and most of all, Nora's hair looked almost soft. Hancock continued. "Ghouls are created by extended exposure to rads. Some of us literally lose our minds; ghouls like me just get a fucked-up complexion and a little extra charisma. I'm a little different, almost manufactured. A little radioactive drug got the better of me, but-" Hancock inhaled through his nose. "It was worth it."

Nora was silent for a moment. "I was an avatar of the justice system, a lawyer. It was idealistic even then, more so now. I sought truth."

"Idealistic, maybe. No less worthwhile. The Commonwealth just dispenses justice as it sees fit," Hancock said, and Nora traced the rim of her drink with her finger before stepping back from the bar only to fall down all over herself and into a fit of laughter. Hancock chuckled along with her for a moment, eyes in the bar all on them as he reached a disfigured hand down to help her up. "Let's get you home, sweetheart."

She locked up at hearing him call her sweetheart, and Hancock was unsure why, but she brushed it off quickly. "Call me anything else you like, so long as it isn't bitch, but try to stay away from sweetheart if possible…" Nora trailed off, still on the ground and gripping Hancock's hand like her life depended on it. "My husband called me sweetheart, a long, long time ago." The light glinted off her wedding band in that moment, and she finally pulled herself up off the floor.

"Whatever you say, doll. So long as we chat again sometime." Hancock winked at her to defuse the tension, and she dissolved into a puddle of laughter again, draping herself over him at his request to help her back to the hotel.

Nick was still awake when they arrived, likely waiting for her to return to kill time. He had no need for sleep anyway, and Hancock passed the survivor off to Nick with a nod and a smile before resolving to keep an eye out for the merry band of fools Nora had collected around her.

* * *

 _thanks for reading! i'm hancock trash_


	2. Chapter 2

Nora's cheeks burned, and oh God, she had never wanted to die so much as she did in that moment. She stared up at Fahrenheit, Nick at her side and Bobbi just behind them, and the magnitude of what she'd agreed to came crashing down around her. Survivor slipped away quickly, replaced by shy Housewife despite Survivor's protests.

"Oh my God, Nick, we fucked up. We really fucked up," Nora mumbled under her breath to him, and he deigned only to answer with a nod. Hancock had been so kind to her only a night or two previously and now (her memory was shoddy at best), here she was, literally _blowing_ her way into his store room. Bobbi tried her best to wheel and deal her way out of the sticky situation she'd placed them all in, but the more she talked, the more pissed off Nora got, until finally Bobbi found herself with a bullet in her head when she was unwilling to take the deal that Nora was trying to offer.

Nora's hand shook as the pistol fell to her side again, and Nick glanced at her worriedly as Fahrenheit laughed. She held it together until Hancock's bulldog finally left, and then she collapsed into Nick's arms.

"What's going on here, kid?" Nick asked, understandably confused, and Nora straightened up, still sobbing slightly and mortified at the amount of snot and dirt that rubbed off on Nick's jacket.

"I just gotta…" Nora sniffed. "I just gotta toughen up, is all. That's the first time I've ever-" Her voice cracked. "That's the first time I've ever shot first, and certainly the first time I've shot somebody I was working with."

Nick chuckled, not unkindly, slinging his arm around her shoulder. "Kid, you're too good for this world. You tried to give her a way out."

"Coming from you, 'too good for this world' might actually mean something."

"You want a drink? We'll grab Piper and make a date of it."

"I always did like reporters, Nick. How'd you know?"

Three hours later, Nora was decidedly not fine. Nick had left to walk Piper back to their hotel, and she had found herself in the Third Rail's bathroom, vomiting and only hitting her target (the toilet) about 90% of the time. Somehow, three hours ended with her passed out on the floor, her last memory only something about _do the toilets even flush in this time? I ran to the toilet to throw up because that's what we were always told to do but is it the same? What is the drunk etiquette?_

She woke up in a place she didn't recognize, and the first thing Nora did was pull her pistol on whatever thing was moving at the edge of her vision.

"Easy there, sister…" Nora recognized the voice at once, and lowered the pistol, Hancock's red coat finally registering as her eyes adjusted to the dim candle that was the only source of light in the room.

"Of course it'd be you," Nora muttered under her breath, grabbing her own head in pain. Hancock chuckled and tossed her a canister of water.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He sat down across from her and swung his boots up on the table between them, as she chugged half of it in one drink. "I'd offer you something to ease the pain, but last time you so much as sniffed a chem you were down for the count. Though, with the way you've been hitting the bottle, maybe you're ready to step up to the challenge."

Nora shook her head. All things considered, the experience with Med-X had put her off of any substance she didn't know much about, to the point where one might almost call her scared. "I only hit the bottle when I find out I've just completely sabotaged a friend or I've returned from nearly the brink of death."

"Calling it a sabotage isn't really fair. You thought you were screwing with a Diamond City tyrant, but if that's what it takes for you to call me a friend, then I suppose I still came out on top. It bother you if I take a hit?" Hancock's hands were fidgeting, and Nora shook her head. "Fahrenheit told me you tried to talk down Bobbi. More than she deserved, if I'm being honest."

"Fahrenheit also said something about you knowing everything that goes on in Goodneighbor, and while I don't doubt that, I do find it hard to believe that such an upstanding gentleman as yourself would allow this charade to go on," Nora said, not a little passive-aggressively.

Hancock sighed and lit a cigarette, settling back as the mentats worked their way into his system, almost looking a little upset with himself. "Yeah, I'll be honest, I feel bad about that. Part of the reason people in power go crazy is because they can manipulate those under them. They play a game. Forget what it's like to be on the ground themselves." He stood and walked slowly to the window, staring out at the flickers of light that dotted the town in the darkness. "I'm getting too comfortable. Gotta get out there again, bust a few heads, make sure I remember what it's like to be a person and not a politician."

"Christ. If you wanna get out of here that badly, we've always got room for another," Nora said. Hancock took a drag from his cigarette, and Nora stood, the ghoul now silent. "I should probably head back. I'm sure Nick and Piper are worried."

"Likely. Hang around Goodneighbor tomorrow, if you can."

Nick had been worried sick, but Piper at least been passed out and hadn't been in any state to interrogate Nora when she returned to the hotel room. The detective let up after Nora grabbed her face and groaned whenever he raised his voice above a whisper, but Nora wasn't sure when she had come under the care of a synthetic dad. Nevertheless, the concern was not ill-taken.

Nora slept late because Piper, normally the early bird, was hungover to hell, and Nick felt it unwise to wake either of the women before they were good and ready themselves. When Nora woke, Piper had just done the same, and Nick showed up not twenty minutes later.

"What time is it?" Nora groaned, still fighting off the last bits of the hangover, and Nick shook his head.

"Late enough that we should really be heading out to do something, if we're planning on getting anything done."

So they left. Out the door, down the stairs, and into blinding sun that made Nora wish that she'd brought a pair of sunglasses along. From her moaning, Piper felt similarly, while Nick spared only a chuckle or two at their expense. Of course, nothing could have prepared Nora for the gathering in the middle of Goodneighbor that they ran into the second they tried to get out of town.

Nora only caught the end of it, but that was all she needed, followed by a rousing round of, "Of the people! For the people!" that Hancock started but the crowd carried on. Hancock was leaving Goodneighbor, and in some way, that made Nora upset – not sad, per se, but more like a friend was moving away, and she supposed that was why he had asked her to hang around Goodneighbor for the day.

She, Piper, and Nick stopped to stock up on supplies before skipping town (Hancock had paid handsomely for not killing Fahrenheit and turning on Bobbi instead), mostly ammo, and on exiting Daisy's store, Nora found a familiar red coat waiting for them.

"Weren't thinking of leaving without me, were you?" Nora could hear the smirk in Hancock's voice, and she opened her mouth to answer, but Piper spoke first.

"What?" Piper was far from a pacifist and never ran away from a deserved fight, but Nora knew she disagreed with pretty much everything Hancock stood for except for "Of the people, for the people."

"My friend Nora invited me to pal along with you last night. I was getting too comfortable," Hancock said, in almost the exact same way he had the night before.

Piper's jaw dropped. "You were with him last night? Nick told me he couldn't find you."

"In my defense, I didn't look very hard," Nick said dryly, cigarette dangling from his mouth.

Nora rubbed her temples, looking at Piper first. "I wasn't _with_ him last night. I passed out in the bathroom of that _fucking bar_ without a chaperone because Nick had to walk you back." Nora turned to Hancock. "And I didn't think we were being serious-"

"You're saying you don't want me to come with? After that speech I just gave to everyone, Christ, this is embarrassing…"

"I never said I didn't want you to come –"

"It's settled then," Hancock said, "Where are we headed?"

Nora's cheeks burned red. "Hey, you don't call the shots here. I'm in charge."

Hancock stared at her from under the brim of his hat. "No offense, but if I've read anything about your situation right, you can't really afford to be turning down allies, especially ones that know their way around a firefight."

Hancock caught a glint of light off of her wedding band again as she ran her fingers through her hair – if she let him come with them, he'd have all the time in the world to figure that mystery out. When Nora sighed, he smiled genuinely at her.

Nora wasn't really upset to have him along; in fact, it was quite the opposite. She had grown almost fond of him, but that didn't change her uneasiness at his "ghouliness," as she'd heard Piper refer to it… but a trial period couldn't hurt, she supposed, and there was no reason she couldn't get over it. This was a goddamn nuclear wasteland, and she wasn't going to be picky about how her friends looked.

"We're going to Sanctuary."

Halfway there, Nora groaned so loudly, Hancock was surprised that it didn't attract a yao guai.

"What's up, kid?" Nick asked, innocently enough.

"Danse is gonna pitch a fucking fit. I'm bringing a ghoul home to meet my racist father."

Piper fell into peals of laughter.

* * *

 **thanks for reading! xx**


	3. Chapter 3

aware (japanese, noun): the bittersweetness of a brief and fading moment of transcendent beauty

* * *

Housewife the diplomat had come out not long after returning to Sanctuary, and she hadn't had a damn break since. It had only been a little over a day since she'd returned to Sanctuary with Nick, Piper, and Hancock, but Survivor was getting restless, and Lawyer was finding it difficult not to take a side, and oh my _god_ sometimes she regretted helping out the Brotherhood of Steel, because if she hadn't then she wouldn't have had to deal with Danse for the last 24 hours.

Nora had her feet propped up on a table that had certainly seen better days and her head leaning against one of her hands, a little too comfortable and nearly dozing off when Preston came knocking. Nora smiled and sat up straight, beckoning him in. Preston took his hat off as he entered, and rubbed his head.

"Sorry to bother you, General. There's raider trouble at Abernathy Farm, and the settlers there could use a hand."

Nora gave Preston a weary smile, and tossed her body weight forward, standing up. "No bother, Preston. I'm on it." Dogmeat whined at her feet, and Survivor welcomed the idea of getting out of Sanctuary. Preston and Nora exited together, Dogmeat trailing just behind with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, Nora mostly concerned with getting the particulars of what Preston knew. Having done that, Nora stopped by her workbench, Dogmeat still by her side, only to run straight into Hancock.

Nora smiled. It was hard getting past the superficial, but thus far, Hancock had done nothing but meet expectations and occasionally exceed them, drug habit aside. "How's it going, Hancock?"

"Can't complain, sister. Heard you were heading out."

"You heard right. The Minutemen require my special brand of diplomacy." Nora patted her gun for emphasis. "Wanna tag along? Should be pretty routine, and I think Dogmeat will forgive me if I leave him here one more time." At the mention of his name, Dogmeat licked Hancock's hand. "Look," Nora chuckled, "He's even given you his blessing."

Hancock laughed in turn. "Dogs are the best wingmen."

Hancock was no fool; he could tell he made Nora a little uncomfortable, but it was hard to begrudge her that when Vault dwellers knew even less about how the world really worked any more than Dogmeat did. She found it difficult to hold eye contact with him for very long, and spent most of her time staring straight ahead while he was around, but Hancock knew an attempt to be inclusive when he saw it, and Nora inviting him along was just that.

Nora knelt down to finish latching up her backpack, and Dogmeat took the opportunity to plant a sloppy kiss on her face. Nora sputtered and fell over backwards, and Hancock couldn't help but smirk a little as she recovered and scrambled to her feet.

"Stay, buddy. I'll be back in a few days." She scratched behind the dog's ears, and Dogmeat whined before trotting off. "Ready, Hancock?" Hancock nodded, and he and Nora started walking towards the edges of Sanctuary.

"So what's it like –" The stream of conversation had been coming fairly easily, and Hancock wasn't sure what had caused the abrupt pause until he realized that meathead from the Brotherhood of Steel was standing between them and the bridge. "Danse. What can I do for you?"

Hancock sighed and lit a cigarette. Nora could be rigid when she wanted to be, and if there was anything he'd learned in the past few days, it was that she could compartmentalize like no other.

They looked almost comical, standing in front of one another. Nora barely cleared five feet and wore the lightest armor she could find, especially since she'd hurt her leg; Danse could be heard from a mile away in power armor and had at least a head on Nora.

"I simply wanted to advise against going on your current mission in present company."

Hancock rolled his eyes and took another drag, though he was genuinely interested in whether or not Danse's warning would be enough for Nora to retract her offer for him to come along.

"Noted." Nora's voice was cool, and Hancock was a little surprised at the ease with which she dismissed Danse's concerns. "Danse. I like you – you know I like you – but I fear you're letting your prejudices color your perception of incredibly useful allies." She said it all with a stern face, but Nora's face softened and she gave Danse a hug that he couldn't have felt through the armor. "Be safe while we're gone."

That was all. Hancock nodded at Danse as they walked past, and Danse wouldn't meet his eyes, but it didn't really matter. Nora had hugged everyone as they'd left, so it didn't surprise Hancock that she'd hugged Danse. Piper had even been the recipient of a kiss on the cheek and Nora had given Nick a brotherly punch to the shoulder that she'd regretted upon remembering that Nick was literally made of metal.

So they walked. It was quiet after Danse, though Nora didn't appear particularly perturbed by the encounter.

"Say what you will about me and the chems," Nora finally said, breaking the quiet, "but they still did the trick. I'm sore, but I barely have to baby my leg at all."

If Nora didn't want to talk about Danse, Hancock wouldn't complain. "Yeah, I've never seen someone react quite the way you did."

Nora chuckled. "What can I say, Hancock? I'm one of a kind."

Hancock was, in a word, confused. He had known about Nora's tendency to compartmentalize, but he hadn't known quite how good at it she really was. Nora had switched into Housewife the moment she saw the settlers at the farm, and she seemed to split at the seams with genuine concern for their wellbeing, but it was gone just as quickly as it had come. The couple mile trek to raider territory, Nora graced Hancock with Housewife's quiet manner and soft laughter, but the shift to Survivor was so quick that it almost perturbed Hancock.

"Stay quiet," she said, and Hancock wouldn't dream of disobeying her, although he didn't really think she meant it as an order. Switchblade in hand, Nora fell into a crouch and approached the raider base, slitting the throat of the first raider patrolling and ducking down behind a car until she was sure the coast was still clear.

Hancock was both impressed and terrified, and he vaguely remembered Nora saying something like, "I prefer to be very, very close or as far away as humanly possible." He also vaguely remembered her lamenting that they were out of ammo for her sniper rifle, so her current approach made sense.

Then they noticed her, and Nora yelled out his name from where she had taken cover, not so far from where he was. She'd dispatched of four of their immediate threats, and only two were left in the immediate vicinity.

Hancock went after one with his shotgun, and he didn't last very long, and Nora disposed of the other, but not without sustaining yet another injury to her already mangled leg.

"Son of a fuck!" It was more of a gasp of pain than a scream, and when Hancock retrieved the Med-X he was carrying, Nora shrunk away from him, Survivor gone and Housewife once more. "I-I can't. I don't know what's going to happen if I take these chems. You saw me last time, and Nate would never forgive me if I died to drugs out here."

Nate? Who the hell was Nate?

Nora moaned and grasped for her leg, and Hancock finally looked down to survey the damage. The raider had had a baseball bat and gone straight for the leg that Nora had been trying so hard to protect. It was already purpling and from the way Nora screamed out when she tried to put any weight on it, Hancock was fairly sure it was broken.

"C'mon, sister." Hancock opted for a stimpak instead, and Nora held out a hand for it. "That'll help. It's no painkiller, but it's better than nothing. I think we've taken care of their raider trouble for now. Let's get back."

Nora struggled to her feet, putting as little weight on her mangled leg as possible, and Hancock knocked back a couple of mentats before offering his shoulder to help support her.

"Better not let Danse see me like this. He'll probably think you chewed up my leg yourself." Nora chuckled as they struggled along, and Hancock couldn't help but think she was probably right.

"Yeah, it's best to get you patched up at least a little before we limp back into Sanctuary."

"What do the chems feel like?" Nora asked, a little abruptly, and Hancock shot her a sideways glance that she took in stride. "The only time I've ever had one I fell flat on my back. It wasn't exactly enjoyable."

"Well, I hope from now on that all your experiences on your back absolutely blow your mind," Hancock said, and Nora snorted despite herself, grimacing almost immediately afterwards.

"No, really, Hancock."

"Depends on the chem. I've always been a mentats ghoul myself. Makes me feel intellectual."

"I've always been pretty much a goody-two-shoes. No drugs, no alcohol, no sex, no meat."

"Sounds boring."

"That's what everyone always told me, but it got me where I wanted to be. Hell, I think I've been boring since I was eight years old. You would have hated me."

Her grin was wide despite the pain she was obviously feeling, and Hancock chuckled. "Well, anybody willing to travel with a ghoul for any amount of time can't be too boring, even a ghoul with my kind of charisma."

"Ahh, don't sell yourself short, Hancock." Nora groaned again, and Hancock stopped as Nora slowed even further. "I'm fine. If we can get back to the Abernathy place, I'll try the Med-X again. I don't want to try it in a place I'm exposed like this. We'll just have to cut way back on the dosage."

Hancock nodded, and they continued limping their way across the landscape, Nora's wedding ring digging into his shoulder. The further they walked, the more she leaned into him, strength escaping her, until finally they were back with the settlers.

"Anything we can get for you, Ma'am? After everything you've done, I think we owe the Minutemen just about everything we can give them."

"No, just… keep watch while I take these chems. I didn't take to them so well last time."

Hancock almost wanted to laugh; that was the understatement of the century. Nora laid down on the dingy couch and motioned Hancock near. "I'll admit," Nora said through gritted teeth, "that I have no idea how to administer these drugs, so I'm going to need your assistance. I'm also going to ask you to not be a total asshole about what a lightweight I am."

Hancock laughed as she pressed the syringe into his hand. "You've been travelling with me long enough to know I'm the nicest guy around, sister. Now, this is going to sound forward of me, but I'm going to need to see your thigh."

"You know," she said, trying to roll up the leg of her vault suit and failing as her fingers shook, "I've always been a little squeamish around needles. It's why I gave up on being a doctor."

Nora's eyes were wide, and Hancock could tell she was significantly more nervous than she was trying to let on, but she finally hiked the leg of her suit up far enough. Survivor was exhausted, and as the needle pressed against her skin, Nora gripped Hancock's other wrist, the one that he wasn't using to shoot her up.

Skin was such a funny thing. His wrist looked even more deformed with her fingers wrapped around it, and they were even _soft_ , and so little in this world was soft anymore. Her nails dug into him briefly before the painkiller started to take effect, and little by little, her fingers loosened. Nora wasn't quite awake, but she wasn't unconscious either, at least as far as Hancock could tell.

"Hancock," she whispered.

"Mmm?" Hancock mumbled back, comfortably smoking a cigarette now that he was at least semi-reassured that Nora wasn't going to die of a drug overdose.

"Danse can go fuck himself. I'm glad you're here."

"Glad to hear it, sister."

"You can't leave now, by the way," Nora said, slurring her words like only a person under the influence can. "You're the only one who's successfully doped me up."

As she fell asleep there and ruined their chances of returning to Sanctuary before nightfall, Hancock was struck briefly by the thought that Nora was quite attractive, tousled hair falling all over her face, one black, blue and purple leg exposed, and her flawless skin contrasting so heavily with his.

* * *

 **you can find me on tumblr as battlemastershepard!**


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